recap 4: first dancin'!

So after some posing on the porch (formal portraits, serious face ache from smiling), we went inside the lodge to where the action was. We were announced by Ryan's cousins and our bridal/groom parties joined us too. Then we danced a little to the song we came in to (Party Hard by Andrew WK). We forgot how long the song was (Anyone else notice how looooong things seem when you are standing in front of everyone? Attempting to dance? By attempting I mean some hyrbid version of "the mashed potato" and "the lawnmover"? Or my patented jazz hands and bob your head move?) Anywaaays, my advice? Play a snippet of your chosen song then move right into something else. In our case, we moved right into our 1st dance (Book of Love; Peter Gabriel verison nice hybrid of Ry's PG love and my love of Magnetic Fields and just about anything Stephen Merritt does). I loved it. Every awkward second of it. I know a lot of people do things like take dance lessons prior to the day but I kinda loved how fresh and unrehearsed ours was. Also I spent the entire time spinning Ryan and scoping out cute babies to hold and hug after the dance.





( top to bottom: one of my favs even though its blurry, we look happy and everything felt like a blur so it sums up the day nicely; not sure whats happening here but i like it; so art school but again i love the idea of everything whirring around me and i look so calm and introspective, i'm probably just thinking of holding babies and being so in love with Ry; i really wish i knew what he is saying to me here, love this picture too; baby success! hoo-rah!)

a slight hiccup & a happy friday

I realize this post should be another recap but this week has been nutso. I am slowly writing that post but in the meantime, thought I'd check in and say hi. To tide you over, here's a picture of me playing the crap out of an inflatable saxophone:

(Left to Right: tutu'd Liz, jazzlady Lisa, stocking cap'd Jill)

Congrats & good luck to the weekend brides! Especially Jen! Have an awesome day tomorrow!!!

recap 3: things are happening!

I cried just a little. The under 10 minute ceremony talked about how we first met and what we love about each other. I put the ring on the wrong finger.

In the words of a true Boston girl: it was wicked awesome.

up next: party hard!

recap 2: morning of!

So my first memory of the morning of is waking up and smiling, pretty well rested for falling asleep so late the night before (keep in mind, I'm an old person who likes going to bed at 8pm). Then hearing an excited squeal, I went into the bathroom and at quarter of 7 in the morning, my sister was in there doing her hair. I hope my sister doesn't mind me revealing this here but her side bun was fake hair. She had me hysterically laughing telling me the story of buying the hair. She went to Sally Beauty Supply and the girl ringing her up said ''hey girl! be careful. I was at the club the other night, ya know drinking and dancing? and my friend was all 'girl your hair is on the floor!' and my hair was on the floor!' My sister then asked her how many bobby pins she had used and she said 'one'. Classic. I love it so much.
So after a very relaxed morning of coffee and bagels with the girls (advice: eat the morning of! you will need something in your system when you get your drink on later or just good for calming nerves), we caravaned over to the camp and I got a chance to give hugs and thanks to all my helpers (can I discuss how much I love the family I married into? tons and tons of love!!!). These are some of the things they were doing:

(table breakdown: flowers in center with table numbers and disposable cameras, postcards and bibs at people's seats; if you do disposable cameras: I recommend not spending too much on them since not everyone will use them and when you go to develop them you may have a lot of black blank film from people not using the flash. More people than I would have thought actually wore the bibs so that was really fun. I also highly recommend the postcard idea to everyone! They were so fun to read together! Almost everyone did them, some people wrote stories, some people wrote about the wedding, really really fun)

(As I mentioned before, my aunt did the flowers. I really liked them! Lots of color, nothing too crazy. Also, most people kept their hooray flags since Ry's cousins handed them out as people sat down. My little cousin ripped the flag off and made some kind of sword I think, so theres that too!)

(Sorry realize you guys have seen these a zillion times, but table number close up)

(Ah! To finally see all the garland in action! It was all over the outside of the place. We really lucked out with amazing weather and got to decorate and have our ceremony outside. And on another cool note, the camp liked my decorations so much they too pictures to put in their catalog! also, the bartenders said they go to hundreds of weddings a year and mine was their favorite ever! and they said it a bunch of times!! what what)

(Close up of pinwheels on windows. They were hung across the full windows and on the stage too)

(cupcake tower, little cupcake "topper" I made)

(The wreaths in the entranceway. So psyched the R didn't fall off, it is hotglued on there like craaaaazy)

(favor close up; good feedback on the favors! people love giganto marshmallows)

While all that was going on, here we were:

(my sister doing my hair; one thing I really loved is getting ready in that room with the windows; people who walked by like various cousins and family could peek in and say hi to me. Lots of people came in to visit me and I liked that so much more than being alone. Our officiant, Ryan's best lady, Ryan's mom and aunt, my mom and our awesome photographer. I loved being able to see them and spend time with them before. Also, a drunk fisherman stuck his face in through the window to congratulate me)

(More makeup than I've worn in quite some time. Felt very glam. My sister did an amazing job on my hair and makeup. She is the best!!! The necklace is something I bought my mom when I went to Italy in college)

(Me and my awesome awesome ladies! How fabulous are they? They looked amazing. after taking this photo, I proceeded to hyperventilate and pace the room, repeatedly almost tripping on my dress. No idea why I was so nervous, I think just taking in the day. Whenever I smile in pictures, I always feel like it looks like I just ate something delicious, like I'm thinking 'yummmm'. Liz looks happy and calm. So does Laura, but I know she is secretly nervous that what the Sally Beauty salesgirl prophesied would come true. One of the 3 times I cried that day was when my dad came in. Stay tuned for great pics of my dad looking freaked when he is about to walk me down the aisle!)

next: ceremony & happenings!

recap 1: pre-wedding events!

(one of my favorite photos of me and the bestie at the pre wedding dinner; promise next recaps will have more pictures!!!)

Event 1: Bachlorette aka Friday the 13th Fiesta

First piece of advice: I recommend (if you can) that you have your best ladies stay with you before the big event. Because our wedding was a Sunday, I lucked out and had the girls for 3 days, 2 nights! You can do things like gab, do your nails and eat nachos and drink lime rickeys (also, if you paint your nails a bright cheery color, it will pump you up!I picked some crazy bright pink red orangish color!)! And watch MST3K! So I spent most of Friday morning doing last minute things (last minute gifts to give out at pre-wedding dinner, last minute grocery shopping for fiesta, etc). Then my sis came over at noonish and my other amazing girls came pre party and helped me clean and make food. I should have known better but I of course made too much food (I made a couple salads but all we ate were chips, salsa, jalapeno poppers and crab empanadas. Also, the tres leches cake was a huge hit! Will make that again). More advice: make sure to invite your McGuyver friend who can jury-rig your clothes line to hold a pinata. Another piece of advice? If you make edible favors, remember to actually give them out to the people who attend your party. Whatever you do, do not 'have a little bite' of one of the many left in your fridge because you will then proceed to eat more than your share of margarita cupcakes with lime curd and whipped cream (and edible glitter!!). All in all, great party, good friends, good sangria and margaritas. Not too much to clean up other than jalapeno confetti and broken pieces of pinata (which doubled as hats! It was a star shaped pinata). Anyone need any pinata candy? I have a huge bag left. I could send candygrams if you send me your address!

Event 2: "Rehearsal Dinner" aka Pre-Wedding Dinner

I know its is traditionally called a rehearsal dinner but we did no rehearsing. It was making me a little nervous to have no rehearsal but guess what?! Didn't matter. We all made it down the aisle fine. So anyways back to the rehearsal. There were 30 of us at a great Chinese food place. More advice: eat scallion pancakes before your wedding. It will make you very happy. We did an introduction of all family members to one another and I did a quick 'thank you everyone' speech. Then I gave out gifts. I am going to tell you guys what I did since I was really stressed out on what to give so maybe this will help you!

Mom- Maya Angelou book, picture of us (I printed out pictures of me when I was little with them and found a nice quote and framed it. I also found some cool vintage wallpaperish paper to use as the background)

Sister & Hairdresser-stovetop espresso maker (for doing my hair), bridesmaid tin (filled with all yellow things to go with my original color theme, things like candy, earrings, chopsticks, screenprinted dish towel, perfume, nail polish, etc etc)

Best Friend-bridesmaid tin

Out of Towners- canvas bag with iron on map of Mass (easy to make! and cheap!) filled with:

Boston magazine, lobster lollipops, local Marylous coffee, Cape Cod postcards, stuff from the College I work at (baby shirts for the cousins with babies, mugs/water bottles for the other guys), bottled water

Dad- stovetop espresso maker, picture of us, cufflinks (used fabric and cufflink posts I bought off etsy)

Aunt & Florist- picture of us, pot with herb seeds

Ryan's mom- ladybug brooch (ladybugs remind them of Ry's grandma), 'thanks for being so fabulous' wooden sign, vera bradley photo book, picture of us

Ryan's aunt (super helper with venue and on day of!)- ladybug day planner, candy, photo clutch

Ryan's dad- hot pepper vodka, cufflinks, flask (covered blank flask with hawaiian shirt fabric since he wears hawaiian shirts all the time)

day of helpers- bags with penny candy (wax lips, unicorn pops, hot tamales, etc)

I also made gift tags which said 'thank you for everything' and I used pictures of me as a baby with them or pictures of them and little Ryan.

All were very affordable but I really wanted to thank everyone for all their help.

Up next: day of! woo!

Happy Birthday, Bear Claw!

Happy Birthday to my husband (!!!) who turns the big 3-1 today. I love you so much and am sorry your present hasn't arrived yet! I have a feeling this year is going to be awesome.



(I promise you some recaps soon. I'm doing some serious relaxing since we got back from the honeymoon. No professional photos yet but I have tons of facebook ones to show!)

the key to an amazing wedding...

...is to have a photobooth with a big green hat


(my sister the boxer punching me as I jump out of a big green hat)

I had an absolutely amazing day with my family and friends! Thanks for all the sweet shout outs and well wishes! I will recap after the honeymoon! be back soon!

and congrats to all the brand new weekend brides!!!

GUEST BLOG: My Wife-to-be is a Liar

by Ryan J. Tressel, esq.

Alright, ladies, it's truth-tellin' time. I've sat here quietly for the past eighteen months as my wife-to-be has spread untruths about me. I mean, I don't blame her. Who would want to admit that they are marrying the gloomiest, grumpiest bastard of all time? Better just portray me as a sensitive, caring, funny stud-muffin. Well, it's not true. I haven't laughed since 1987 and despite whatever random Google image gets spit out when you search for 'handsome man' that she has posted here, I am, in reality, hideous. If an unbaptized child sets eyes on me, I steal their soul. That's how hideous I am.

With the wedding scant days away, I thought it was time I came down these parts and laid down the law about Lisa. Yes, that's right, if she'd lied about the grim, chubby monster she was marrying, why wouldn't she lie about herself?

Lie: She's a super-talented artist who has lovingly and painstakingly created all our wedding decor herself by hand.

Truth: Sweatshops. Indonesian children. 6 cents an hour.

Lie: She has a terrific and truly sweet sense of humor.

Truth: Anytime you chuckled at something Lisa posted on this blog, know that it was lifted wholesale from an episode of "Perfect Strangers." That's right, you've been laughing at Balki jokes all along.

Lie: She has devotedly blogged several times a week, when I, the professional writer of the pair, gave up his blog months ago.

Truth: At least two-thirds of the posts on craftmybride were copied and pasted from the wedding blog of Larry King's seventh wife.

Lie: She has done a wonderful job dealing with all the stresses of planning a wedding, even after both my sisters decided to get married weeks after us, and handled herself with an uncommon grace.

Truth: Neither of my sisters has been seen in six months. Search crews gave up weeks ago.

Lie: She is the most beautiful woman on earth.

Truth: This is true, however, do you realize how many small animals she has sacrificed to Acolmiztli, Aztec God of the underworld, to attain this beauty?

Lie: I am the luckiest man alive to be getting married to the best person I've ever met in four days, and then living in a house with her and having tons of babies.

Truth: Ever since I didn't pay the toll crossing over Troll Bridge, I've been cursed. Cursed, I say!

I wish all readers of Craftmybride the best of luck in their futures. I hope you haven't fallen for any of Lisa D's internet scams, and for those of you who have and subsequently lost your entire life savings, I just wanted to say the missus and I are judgement proof, so it's really not worth your time trying to sue us.

In all seriousness, some of you have been terrific internet friends to my bride over the past year and a half, and I know that it has meant a lot to her having so many people follow her journey and offer their thoughts and supportive comments. But I just want to point out that there is nobody who is a bigger craftmybride fan than ole' RJT here. I've read every post every morning after she's slinked off to work, and while I haven't commented very often, I think I should get points of the "long time listener, first time caller" variety. I'm enormously proud of my little lady, and for those of you who have read this blog and thought about how cool and awesome and truly wonderful Lisa D is, just imagine how lucky I feel that I get to marry her.

In your faces.

thank you to the max

(I have such a girly crush on this wonderful artist...I want to buy everything from her shop! Also, check out her daily diaries! One of these days I am going to do this for me too)

With only a handful of days left (and lots of days without blogposts...sorry! also, probably going to be several days without them coming up too!), I'm just going to ramble for a bit. You miss my rambling don't you?

1. Food. I know, don't I talk about this enough? No clearly, I have so much more to say about food. You would think with single digits left until I am going to get married, I would be cooling it on the bad food. You know I kinda was for a while but not in a healthy way. I was so stressed I wasn't eating (that my friends NEVER happens). Then I did things like eat this (its as good as it looks). This girl has inspired to try to be better, especially for the little ones I hope to have very soon. Lets say I start this after the wedding. Until then, I am going to try to be more zen, less piggy-ish but not try to fret too much. Did I mention I broke into the pinata candy? Yikes.

2. I think every big life changing experience makes you see others in different lights. I could go on for a while about this but I think I'll let it be at that. well, actually one more thing, this whole craziness, this year of planning for 1 day (not even 1 day! 5 hours of 1 day!) has made me love Ryan even more. The fact that he sticks with me during my craziness, my ridiculous worries, even after watching me eat embarassing things and/or crying during MTV shows and sappy ads. Did I mention he is playing me down the aisle with a song he wrote for me? Did I mention how the vows he wrote for us made me cry? I love him like crazy. He is going to read this and shake his head at me but I don't care! I love that dude of mine.

3. I have zero desire to do anything in the days leading up to my wedding weekend. is that bad? I am currently eating popsicles and watching 'I Shouldn't Be Alive'. I guess I did clean up and do the trash so that counts as something? +2 points for me!

3. I can't thank you guys enough! Yes you. The bloggy world. I know I could have made it to this point on my own but it would have been a whole lot less fun awesome. I love that I got to "meet" you and hope we can stay in touch long past the weddings (you are all going to keep blogging, right???). I was fully intending to write individual shout outs to everyone I read but then I realized how many blogs I read! ha ha. So heres the shorter verison:

thanks to all of you for your inspiring posts. thanks for making me laugh when i was in a pissy mood. thanks for being so open and honest and making me feel less alone. thanks for writing things in better words than i could ever write. thanks for expressing things i have trouble expressing. thanks for the shout outs and sweet comments. thanks for letting me steal your DIY ideas. thanks for letting me see your pictures! thanks for actually reading my blog. I love you all!*

*anyone who stumbled upon this post. please check out all the hyperlinks. you will find some
amazing ladies and gents! also, if i missed anyone, sorry! its the result of me getting sleepy or sloppy or both. also, does this make up for me slacking on commenting on your posts? sorry about it.

also: Extra special shout out to Angie! You are the best! Your wedding is going to be AMAZING! Thank you so much for everything. Your comments and emails made my day on more than you know. Come to Boston and visit sometime!

Be sure to raise your glasses to Angie, Rachel (L&L- I am geeking out thinking about your wedding! I am drooling over the DIY incredibleness of it!!!) and Tamar (thanks for leaving me so many sweet comments that made my day!) this weekend! This Saturday is going to be one hella awesome crazy wedding day!!!! Hip hip hooray!

7 days

(also, make fun of me if you want but this movie scared the beejeezus out of me)

something fun!

(image from here)

In the midst of finishing last minute to-dos for my wedding next weekend (!!!!), I thought I would stop by, say hi and share some of the foodie ideas I've been collecting for friday's bachlorette:

drinks:
summer fruit sangria or rose sangria with pineapple and guava
lime rickeys
pineapple mojitos

apps/little bites:
chile-corn custard squares
stuffed jalapenos
crab empanadas
minted watermelon salad
red rice
shredded cabbage and radish salad
mexican tortas

desert:
tres leches cake or these cookies made into ice cream sandwiches

for favors/ thanks for coming parting gifts:
these cupcakes in mason jars with lime curd and whipped cream

Your thoughts? It's going to be a smallish crowd so I'm not going to be making everything I posted.

Also, how are you doing? Sorry I haven't been around. like I mentioned above, I gotsa get stuff done for next weekend!

something tells me...

(image from here)

....that last night will not be the only sleepless night i'll be having lately

but in good news:

*paid cupcake people

*have many helpers for day of

*lots of good songs on the radio

*surprise party at work

*amazing friends lending me amazing props for photo booth

*yayayayayay good job, California!!!!!!!!!!!

bad news:

*still more stuff to do

*missing my bloggy friends!

just wanted to say hi! hope everything is good with you! 11 days to go!

silly shout out

Just wanted to give a shout out to another Lisa getting married today...

(image from tumbler via a friend's facebook status)

Once Wed, eat your heart out

The wedding we went to yesterday was so incredibly fun and happy and emotional and the decor was to die for. Ryan officiated and read a poem he wrote and I was crying (of course) but instead of just tears running down my cheeks kind of crying, this was chest heaving loudly sobbing kind of crying. He is a VERY good writer. It was such a happy day and the weather was perfect (awkward sunburn just like predicted!). The bride was gorgeous and I am so so happy for her and her new husband (side note: they are our wedding photographers)! They are such amazing people. I wish I had taken any pictures of the ceremony (too busy crying ha ha). We sat on hay bales (they have relatives that own a farm). Comfier than anticipated! So anyways here are some pictures:

(me and Ry wearing hats from the photobooth)

(this amazing wedding was all made possible with family, friends and the bride and groom's hard work (and tons of love). She is the one in the straw hat, just in case you couldn't tell by the white dress. They also had a LL Cool J cut out with the face out so you could pose as him. And lots of crazy sweaters and hats. Also at one point her grandma was in the sailor suit posing. How insanely great is that?!?! This was Ry's crowd and I really really like all of them)

(view inside the tent. Did I mention this is her parent's backyard? It was amazing! For food we had picnic baskets with food from whole foods like pasta salad and baguettes and brie. Also, super amazing cupcakes. They did all the linens themselves too.)

(one of the favors, beautiful potted flowers with an adorable little sign)

(sparklers and personalized matchbooks)

(lots of little bottles with pretty flowers)

(another favor. They were filled with a kazoo, fake mustache, a small rubber ball and poems)

(close up of the centerpieces)

(bathtub of delicious sodas and beer. one of the best things i found out is most of the bottles, dress up for the photobooth and all the quirky cool things there were the brides already. she loves collecting things. i though that made everything even that much better!)

(view of the backyard outside the tent. lots of lanterns and paper pom poms)

It was so fun. I loved it. I am so psyched to get married in 14 freakin days!

Yes yes yes!!!